Chase Sullivan was killed by Fairview police officers in his own home. Police were not trained to deal with someone in distress. That must change.

Story Highlights

Rebecca Winner's nephew Chase Sullivan was killed by Fairview police in his home on Aug. 31.

On Aug. 31, I requested a welfare check in hopes of getting help for my grief-stricken nephew, Chase Sullivan, who was coping with the death of his younger sister, after he sent me a text crying out for help.

If I had any inkling that the Fairview Police Department was not equipped to handle a crisis situation, I never would have called it.

The two officers who were dispatched to the apartment obviously were not trained to de-escalate or assess a crisis situation.

Their lack of experience and incompetence spiraled out of control rapidly.

Officials caused us lots of pain

Rebecca Winner gets her first look at her nephew Chase Sullivan’s grave marker. Sullivan was shot and killed by Fairview police officers responding to a welfare check in August 2018.(Photo11: Nancy Stephens/The Fairview Observer)

I have been ridden with guilt since this all transpired, leading to the death of my nephew. Being so affected by this hideous act, I find questions running through my mind constantly.

Among them:

Why did you feel the need to shoot him in the chest and in the back?

Why didn’t you just let his friend go inside the apartment or call me?

Train police officers in crisis intervention

We are disappointed in the our district attorney, Kim Helper, and I have lost trust in the Fairview Police Department and TBI.

Why is it that when there is a justifiable killing the body cams are worn and functional, but when a citizen has been killed by police the body cams are conveniently corrupted or not used?

It takes only one police officer to make a wrong decision and avoid accountability to make all the upstanding officers and entire department look bad.

I believe it would be in the best interest of Fairview citizens as well as the department to terminate the officers so the citizens will not have to live in fear.

You can’t bring my nephew back, and it will take me a long time to come to terms with what happened and start healing.

It would, however, go a long way toward earning back my family’s trust, and that of the community, to start having law enforcement officers trained using the crisis intervention training model (CITM) similar to what was established in Memphis in 1988, nationally referred to as the “Memphis Model.”

To Police Chief Zack Humphreys: I am urging you to clean up your department so the citizens will not have to live in fear. Most important, get your officers trained with the CITM program before any more innocent blood is shed by your team.

Rebecca Winner resides in Bon Aqua. Her nephew Chase Sullivan was killed by Fairview police in his home on Aug. 31. A grand jury determined that criminal charges were not warranted against the officers.

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